Page:In Other Words (1912).djvu/36

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Cheer Up, Postumus

AD POSTUMUM
Horace, Book II, Ode 14.
“Eheu! fugaces, Postume, Postume—”
O Postumus, dear Postumus, Old Father Time’s a sprinter,
The summer of my life is spent, approaches now the winter;
Nor all my Wit nor Piety, to quote Omar Fitzgerald,
Can keep my obit from appearing in the Sabine Herald.

If for a daily sacrifice you killed three hundred cattle,
Think you that it would keep from you the Dread and Final Rattle?
Nix! Though you build eight colleges and lib’ries eighty-seven,
You can’t avoid what Rhyme demands I designate as Heaven.

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